February 20, 2015

This report covers conditions and observations made on Thursday, February 19, 2015.

The first photo in today’s report shows a Chico area grower mowing down weeds on the orchard floor. It is followed by the latter stage of bloom in a Padre and Mission row outside of Williams, and finally, the petal fall and declining stages of bloom in the Nonpareil and Carmel in Chico.

Fog covered most of the Sacramento Valley, lifting around noon in most areas. In the northern part of the region fog gave way to mostly cloudy skies and very little sunshine. Meanwhile in the southern part of the region fog burned off into high thin clouds and sunshine. Temperatures rose slowly from their morning lows in the low to mid-40s to peak out in the mid-60s where the sun broke through in the afternoon. Resulting bee activity was two to three hours of little flying where clouds were prevalent. In areas where the sun broke through bees managed to put in five to six good hours of work.

Bloom continued to advance in spite of the weather in the northern region. The early blooming Sonora has very few flowers available for pollination and most of their petals have been shed. In the Chico area Nonpareil and California type varieties are well into petal fall with more jackets showing up each day. Butte and Padre plantings in the area are approaching peak levels of flowers available for pollination with some petals beginning to shed. On the southwest side of the valley, Nonpareil flowers available for pollination are at peak levels while California type varieties are shedding their petals a day or two ahead of Nonpareil. Butte and Padre plantings in the area are exhibiting many buds in the popcorn stage of development poised to open in the coming days. The Monterey cultivar shed a significant number of petals overnight in the entire region.

As seen in the first photo, growers are mowing between their rows to get grass low to protect against any potential frost events. With increased moisture in the last few days more growers are beginning to apply another fungicide treatment.

Conditions

High Temperature: 65°F

Low Temperature: 42°F

Wind: 0-5 mph

Rain: None

Sky Conditions: Mostly cloudy to broken

Bee Activity: 2-3 hours of poor activity due to fog and overcast skies